List Failed Tests from JUnit XML

A test log is long, but the JUnit report contains structured failure records that can identify failed test cases quickly.

Command

grep -RIn '<failure\|<error' artifacts/test/*.xml

Before you run this

System impact: Read-only. Can create load on large logs, directories, filesystems, or process tables.

When not to use it: Do not use simple grep as a full XML parser when exact structured extraction is required.

Expected output

JUnit XML lines containing failure or error elements.

System impact

Read-only, can be slow. Nothing changes. grep prints failure and error records from XML reports.

Scope this to the smallest useful path or service on busy systems.

Recovery / rollback: no state is changed.

When to use it

Use when test logs are noisy but XML reports are available.

When not to use it

Do not use simple grep as a full XML parser when exact structured extraction is required.

Watch this command run

Command transcript

This sanitized transcript shows the commands and output shape without exposing host details.

demo@lab:~$

$ cd /work/ci-artifacts && find artifacts/test -name '*.xml' -print

artifacts/test/junit.xml

$ cd /work/ci-artifacts && grep -RIn '<failure\|<error' artifacts/test/*.xml

4:    <failure message="expected 201 got 500">AssertionError</failure>

$ cd /work/ci-artifacts && sed -n '1,80p' artifacts/test/junit.xml

<testsuite name="api" tests="4" failures="1" errors="0" skipped="1">
  <testcase classname="tests.test_api" name="test_health"/>
  <testcase classname="tests.test_api" name="test_create_user">
    <failure message="expected 201 got 500">AssertionError</failure>
  </testcase>
  <testcase classname="tests.test_billing" name="test_invoice"/>
  <testcase classname="tests.test_slow" name="test_report"><skipped message="slow"/></testcase>
</testsuite>

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